One experience that I will always look back is the one I had this summer, interning at the British Parliament. For four weeks I worked at MP Emily Thornberry’s office in the House of Commons and in her constituency office. As MP, Emily has helped over nine thousand individual constituents, and has been an independent-minded voice for her constituents in Parliament. Out of the all the experiences I went through in my life so far, I found this one the most challenging and thrilling one of all. I attended countless meetings that covered prominent issues that affected the United Kingdom, and a couple that dealt with issues of the Middle East. At these diverse meetings I met different Ambassadors from the Middle East and including the secretary-general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa.This internship did not only focus on tedious office work, but also included outside office meetings, research, letter writing, drafting press releases and campaigning for a by-election. Shadowing an MP and getting involved in aiding the running of the office really gave me a dramatic leap forward in personal maturity and thoughtfulness.

I would also like to take this opportunity to applaud LOYAC for all their numerous achievements in diverse fields and most of all thank them for this truly life time rewarding experience. LOYAC is an institution that keeps planting seeds and makes sure each seed grows and exceeds in its abilities, for I today can say that I have excelled in various fields because of them.

Beginning July 2007, I started a four week long internship at the office of MP Khalid Mahmood in London. I took part in a number of projects relating to parliament, most significantly my involvement in the All-Party Tackling Terrorism Group, which is chaired by MP Mahmood himself. The group takes evidence from counter terrorism experts, foreign diplomats and high ranking officials, including the ambassadors of Palestine and Morocco, the former Archbishop of Canterbury and Britain’s former Envoy to Iraq, all of whom I had the privilege of meeting face to face. Before each committee session, I met with office colleagues to prepare and organize briefs. In particular, I was responsible for producing a number of briefs about the developing situation in Palestine, United States, Kuwait and Afghanistan focusing on their experience in tackling terrorism and extremism. I also examined the UK’s links with these countries. Thus I got the chance to meet a number of influential figures and participate in parliamentary activity first hand.

This internship at the British Parliament has been personally very beneficial. It helped me gain a better understanding of how democracy works in the oldest existing parliamentary system. It gave me an insight into the job of a politician as well as the duties and responsibilities attached to it. Also, through joining MP Mahmood in his meetings with civil activists and members of his constituency, I learned how to communicate with different sectors of society and how to address their diverse concerns properly.

While interning at ExxonMobil IT for the summer, I have learned many valuable lessons. My supervisor tested my skills and abilities through presenting me with multiple challenging assignments throughout my internship. I was very privileged to have a great support from my team and supervisor in a company that puts safety and security on top of its priory list. Working full time on three different challenging projects taught me how to balance my work and make decisions regarding prioritizing what needed to be done. Another valuable lesson I grasped this summer was working in a global setting with people from all around the world. The IT organization in ExxonMobil follows the model “leading the sun”, which can be translated to employees all over the world that by the nature of time zone differences enables the company to operate 24/7. Almost everybody I worked with was not in Houston, TX and therefore the majority of the meetings I had were on the phone or utilizing collaboration tools like Microsoft Netmeeting®. Working with global teams and often not face-to-face was a challenge at the beginning, but soon I became very skillful at it.

Thanks to all who made this happen by giving me the opportunity to learn and excel. I would like to especially mention LoYAC – Lothan Youth Achievement Center, Kuwait - for setting up the interviews with ExxonMobil and giving me the opportunity to showcase my skills and abilities. LoYAC has truly given me the chance to work with a multinational company and prove myself while learning and growing as a leader.

My placement, as facilitated by LoYAC, was with IFAD where I worked with the Senior Communication Officer for the Near East and North Africa division, Mr. Taysir Al-Ghanem. My role was to develop communication materials in different formats that cover activities related to development programs in the assigned region. My experience was an outstanding learning opportunity for me, highly enriching, and stimulating. Tasks assigned to me included reviewing items related to IFAD’s operations available in information kits, newsletters, publications and Portal pages for the purpose of learning. My activities were diversified including research of available documents and interviews with Country Programme Managers and others. The aim of my work was to identify stories of interest to the general public, related to development issues, to be considered for inclusion in the next issue of the Near East and North Africa’s newsletter (No.3/Oct.2007), and for the Rural Poverty Portal and IFAD’s news website (ifad.org).

In addition to that, I frequently researched available reference files, books and internet pages on Arab media and advocacy NGOs, in order to gather relevant data and information. The collected information would be entered into a comprehensive database for future outreach activities.
I am very appreciative of the opportunity provided to me by LoYAC. As a result of LoYAC's extensive professional network, I was able to participate in an internship program in Rome during the month of July, 2007.